Be
notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out
twice weekly.

Enter
E-Mail Address Below:

Subscribe | Unsubscribe

Chronicles of Narnia

Score: 7.0 / 10

If I were to be so bold as to provide a
one-sentence summary of the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch,
and the Wardrobe to save myself the trouble of actually writing a review
-- the 4th Quarter of the 2005 pretty much drained away my will to live,
nevermind my will to write -- would be something like: Chronicles of
Narnia is like a more kid-friendly version of the much-ballyhooed Lord
of the Rings action games from EA, which incorporated clips from the
film into the action and

featured a videogame retelling of the film
source. (Even though both are rated "T" (for Teen), Chronicles of Narnia
definitely feels more kid-friendly.)

If you're familiar with the film or the C.S. Lewis book on which the
film is based, you'll feel right at home controlling the Penvensie kids:
Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, each with their own special abilities.
Lucy is the smallest

Advertisement

of
the bunch and can access small spaces; Susan's forte is ranged combat;
Edmund can climb trees; and Peter -- kind of the brawler of the bunch --
can lay waste to enemies and clear out barriers. In single-player mode,
you can switch between characters on the fly and in some situations
character switching is absolutely necessary. To further heighten the
aspect of in-game teamwork, is that characters can be "combined" to some
extent for more powerful attacks or defensive moves.

The game leaves little in the way of guesswork as to which character
should be used. As you approach objects and locations a character icon
pops up that indicates which character should be used on the object or
location. It makes the experience more accessible for younger players
but for older players it will feel a little too much like you're being
led by your nose.

Chronicles of Narnia manages to keep the action moving at a good clip
and mixes it up with straight hack 'n' slash action and "on rails"
sections (i.e. zipping down ice "rapids" while avoiding gaping chasms).
It's not going to win any awards for originality but developer
Traveller's Tales (of Lego Star Wars fame) did a good job capturing the
major confrontations from the film, particularly the climatic battle
scene, and that's what counts when it comes to licensed games.

On the graphics and audio front, Chronicles of Narnia does a good job
recreating the feel of the film. As mentioned before, clips from the
film are integrated into the game. All the main characters lend their
voices and likenesses to the game to provide that much more
authenticity.

At the end of the day, Chronicles of Narnia is an above-average movie
tie-in. If it left some of the exploration and discovery up to the
players instead of laying things out it would have scored higher. That
said, it's still a good gaming experience.